Tuesday, May 14, 2013

If you look at the bottom of my blog, you will see a list of books I've read this year and last. I've already read two series of books by Garth Nix. I just finished the first books he wrote. And what books! This is my favorite of his series by far.

Garth Nix series I've Read

Here is the Abhorsen Series: astonishing, grand, stunning __________ (add your 2nd adjective) series of books. Definitely on par with the Lord of the Rings by Tolkien. Put these on your Must Read NOW. It is a fantasy fiction genre. It takes place in a land that is divided in two: the Old Kingdom and Ancelstierre. The Old Kingdom is one where the residents have a form of magic called the Charter. Ancelstierre is like our world in modern times: past or present?

Sabriel and Lirael are Abhorsens. They are of an ancestry whose special calling is to maintain the border between life and death. They are fighting against old forces of evil who possess Free Magic. It is a riveting story of people who are given an unwanted personna and how they accomplish their missions in life.

It has fascinating, gripping, engrossing, _______________ (add your 4th adjective) characters. (Don't you feel like you're playing Mad Libs??) Characters such as Mogget, a magical cat, the Disreputable Dog, Sameth, the Prince of the Old Kingdom, necromancers and Nick, a conflicted man from Ancelstierre.

I hope you put this on your list of Must Read NOW list! You'll not regret it!

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Monday, May 13, 2013

My hubby and I are back to ourselves; TGS and OSLW went home about a week ago. What fun we had! It was a whirlwind visit with lots of things to do. I miss them already, but am happy I will see them soon. I will be winging my way to the East Coast in just about a month to visit them and to see Nancy Drew and her family. I'm excited about seeing Nancy Drew; it's been a year. Curly will turn three right before I come. She is a little firecracker and talks all the time. I'm looking forward to seeing how she's changed.

One of the things TGS, OSLW & I did when we were in San Francisco was to take the tour of Alcatraz. It was a federal prison for about 30 years, until 1960s. It harbored the most heinous criminals and was escape proof. The tour is fantastic and I highly recommend it if you are in San Francisco. The tour is self-guided; you get an digital recording and are able to wander at your own pace. This is the second time I've gone and I enjoyed it just as much as I did before.

TGS & OSLW on boat to Alcatraz

A cool pic I took of the two lovebirds
during our tour of Alcatraz

A cell at Alcatraz, very, very small
@ 6 feet across

A decaying building. They continue to reconstruct the
buildings to add to the tour.

A great picture of the three of us
(against a picture backdrop of Alcatraz!

No, the decaying building is not my next project! I finally am going to get going on the wedding quilt for my TGS & OSLW. You might remember in January I was making goals to start the Double Wedding Ring quilt in the colors of fire. (see post here). I kept getting stumped by the arrangement of the fabrics and trying to get them all to play together nicely.

Once I finished the current quilts I was working on, it was time to start on the DWR. But by golly and by gosh I couldn't make those colors work. In the meantime, I hadn't quilted for almost two months. I knew I needed to start, but I just couldn't. I actually stopped quilting at all for almost two months. It IS true that quilters cannot make quilts that they don't like or don't like the colors.

I pulled out the last playing card I had and called in SUPER COLOR DUDE: my hubby. I had him come in and help me out. Hubby is the "color guy" around here. He helps me out oodles with figuring out colors for quilts, sashings, etc. Well even the guru of color couldn't find a way. He finally threw in the towel and said, "These colors just don't work together at all." Wow. I heard the death knell, the boat sank and the train wrecked. My lovely plans for the beautiful wedding quilt that OSLW loved was toast. I determined to break the news when they came to visit.

OSLW took the news well. After talking about colors and quilts, we went to the LQS and looked for fabrics that would go together for the quilt. We finally conceded that a DWR would not be the quilt to use with the fire colors. Next we wandered around looking at other fabrics. I had tried to be helpful and told her the blue and yellow quilts are Beautiful. We picked out fabrics and OSLW realized we would need a different quilt pattern. I suggest a Log Cabin and we were on our way!

Here is a mock-up of the Log Cabin square that I've done.

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Isn't this going to be gorgeous? I absolutely love Log Cabin quilts. I made a Log Cabin quilt for Hubby for Christmas one year. I followed Eleanor Burns Log Cabin methods and it turned out beautifully. Since the quilt will be a California King size and I'm using two-inch strips instead of the 2.5 inch that Eleanor uses in her book. I wasn't sure how much material to buy. I estimated from Eleanor's fabric requirements, adding a half yard or more to what she put. Then when I got to the fabric store I panicked. What if I had too little? What if I ran out of a fabric and I couldn't find the same one anymore? The what-if imp got to me and I added a half-yard to a yard more to my already inflated yardage. I have a feeling I'm going to have some beautiful blues and yellows to add to my stash when all is said and done!

I already have all the strips cut and ready for the quilt. Thanks to Hubby's generous and fantastic birthday quilt, an Accu-Quilt Go, I made short work of the cutting!

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